Or: That time I went to town on Peter Leithart about psych medications.

Psych meds are a lobotomy in a bottle. -Rich Bledsoe∞ July 21, 2015 21:50

I responded, because I’m a theologically conservative Christian with a high view of the value of spiritual work on our psyches, and therefore agree with much of the intent of this critique—but also a Christian with a robust anthropology (of the sort I would expect Leithart to have!) which undercuts this kind of response.

Perhaps it is simply that I am more attuned to these things because my wife deals with clinical depression, but in any case this kind of thinking is profoundly destructive, and all-too common in the church.

My response:

@_Theopolis No. This is a horrifyingly misguided and indeed misanthropic way of stating what may be a useful critique. @PLeithart∞ July 21, 2015 21:55

@_Theopolis It is one thing to say that we overmedicate—we do. It is another to say that psych meds lobotomize us—they do not. @PLeithart∞ July 21, 2015 21:55

@_Theopolis To put it in these terms at all is to mistake at the most fundamental level our embodied, fallen, human nature. @PLeithart∞ July 21, 2015 21:55

@_Theopolis We must say “No” to the captivity of self-medication without rejecting the gift of medicine for broken bodies. @PLeithart∞ July 21, 2015 21:57

@_Theopolis And our bodies include our brains; we are not conveniently separable entities, with psyches untrammeled from flesh. @PLeithart∞ July 21, 2015 21:57

@_Theopolis So by all means, proceed with a critique of cultural folly. But do so with pastoral sensitivity to damaged sheep. @PLeithart∞ July 21, 2015 21:58